‘House’ Series Finale Recap: “Everybody Dies”

‘House’ season 8 and the series at large wraps up its swan song in series finale "Everybody Dies." Last week’s ‘House’ “Holding On” saw Dr. Gregory House on the verge of collapse with the prospect of his best friend's death hanging in the balance and prison time awaiting, so what will the finale bring? Does it wrap everything up in a nice little package, or present like Lupus?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about the ‘House’ series finale “Everybody Dies!”

House awakens, dirtied in the dark, trying to acclimate to his surroundings of a dank room, a dead man, and hardcore drugs nearby. Who should appear then, but the long-dead Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn), pointing out both the dead man and the rising fire beneath them! Unnerved by his hallucination of Kutner, House explains that the dead man is a patient he treated earlier, Oliver, whom he quickly recognized to be scamming for drugs.

Still, House recognizes a condition in Oliver’s abdomen, and admits him for treatment anyway. Seeming awfully happy with his team in spite of his imminent jail time, and the impact it’ll have on his final months with Wilson, House reveals his intent to ask Foreman to stall his parole revocation by insisting House stay on to work a few cases. All the while, his vision of Kutner claims that he knew that plan wouldn’t work, and the reason he’s seeing Kutner at all is because he’s suicidal, still lying on the floor of that burning building.

At another point in time, Foreman seeks out Wilson to explain that House has now been missing for two days, and not in his usual self-destructive manner, especially since the last time he went to prison he knew Wilson would be waiting for him on the other side. Suddenly House’s visionary guide turns from Lawrence Kutner to the similarly deceased Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek), who presses him to continue exploring the memory of treating the junkie Oliver. Catching him in another feigned attempt to score, Oliver insists he’ll never stop, while Amber points out that House uncharacteristically made effort to talk to him about non-medical matters. Oliver explains how he got addicted to drugs, feeling similar to House in that reality sucks, so why bother living?

Later, Foreman refuses to take part in a perjury that would vindicate House from the flushing incident that caved in a roof and revoked his parole, but Amber urges him to go back to the memory of Oliver. House notices that Oliver has Lou Gherig’s disease, but suddenly the memory jumps forward to a point of House noticing an irregularity on his neck. The irregularity turns out to be an accidentally inhaled tree branch that presented as symptoms of Lou Gherig’s disease, meaning he won’t die after all. House explains to Amber that everyone dies anyway, making his job meaningless, but when she counters that solving puzzles makes him happy, he gets up to leave, before a fire on the other side of the door blocks his path.

Meanwhile at House’s apartment, Wilson and Foreman look for evidence of his whereabouts, before finding four unrecognized calls within his phone. Back at the warehouse, House attempts to navigate across a floor before the spot collapses and sends him plummeting to the floor below. While Wilson and Foreman visit Dr. Nolan for a push to realize that House might have taken to heroin along with his patient, the man himself finds his vision has transformed once more, this time into his ex-girlfriend Stacy Warner (Sela Ward). Stacy questions his inability to embrace religion, even in the face of death, but knows that he’s capable of love.

Earlier over lunch, House asks Wilson to take the fall for him by claiming to have been the one that flushed the tickets, as the jury would never convict a man with only months to live, and Wilson reluctantly agrees. However, as House is leaving, Wilson rescinds his agreement, pointing out that he doesn’t want his legacy to end with House never learning to accept the consequences of his actions, even if it means they won’t spend his final months together. Stacy insists that Wilson was right in his decision, and that House would be ultimately better off finding a conscience within himself than being enabled. He takes her hand, and finds himself in a dream home, with their imaginary child between them, but House sees through the fantasy, in spite of her insistence that he could still one day have such wonderful things. Probably not with Jessica Adams, though. Or a room full of cheerleaders.

House lies down again, until his vision transmogrifies once more, this time into Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), but she isn’t insisting that House live! Instead, Cameron suggests that House has worked and suffered long enough to deserve the same choice that Wilson made, to lie down and end the pain. Meanwhile, Foreman and Wilson manage to locate the burning building, with sirens on the way, as Cameron lies down to die with House.

Instead, House revisits the memory of his conversation with Oliver, filling in the gap from earlier. Moved by House’s honesty and kindness in treating him, Oliver offers to take the rap for House, by simply fudging his admittance papers to a week earlier when he might have been the one to flush the tickets, and House graciously accepts. However, he then realizes that Oliver’s dying offer made him a better person than he ever was in life, overwhelming his conscience to the point where House informs him what he noticed about his neck, meaning he wasn’t really dying after all.

Cameron insists that he was cowardly in resigning himself to death rather than face the consequences, which House agrees with, but ultimately resolves that he can change, giving him the push to rise and flee the building after all. On his way to the exit, House catches eyes with Wilson from the outside, just before a beam collapses on his position, and the burning warehouse explodes with him still inside.

The next day, the team solemnly observes as the body is extricated from the building, the coroner later confirming it to be House. At House’s funeral, most all past and present deliver as poignant of eulogies as they can, including Martha Masters (Amber Tamblyn, his mother, Dominika Patrova, Thirteen (Olivia Wilde), the real Cameron, and the rest of the team. Finally, Wilson himself speaks about his deceased friend, ultimately breaking down into a truthful assessment of House as a selfish jerk, when a text message repeatedly interrupts his speech. Embarrassed, Wilson opens his phone to read “SHUT UP YOU IDIOT.” Huh?

Wilson pulls up to a stoop, shocked to find House alive and well! Evidently the good doctor managed to sneak out the back of the burning building, and switch dental records with the dead man, though Wilson reminds him that he could face tremendous jail time, and never be allowed to practice medicine again. House’s only response: “I’m dead, Wilson. How do you want to spend your last five months?”

Montage! We see that the team continues on, as Chase takes over for House, Taub plays father to his kids, Cameron has a daughter of her own, and even Foreman can’t help but smile at the telling ID badge perched under his table that House must have slipped in. Elsewhere, House and Wilson suit up atop motorcycles, and finally ride off into the sunset. When Wilson worries about how House will handle it when the cancer worsens, House only responds:

“Cancer’s boring.” The end.

A fitting finale and swan song for 'House,' even if one hasn't kept up with the series' eight-year run. Wilson and House get their happy ending, no sign of Cuddy in sight, but plenty of other familiar faces to close the gap. We'll miss you, 'House,' and always be grateful that no one ever died of Lupus. Ride on, boys.

Did you get what you were looking for from 'House's final season?? What did you think about the finale? Tell us your favorite memories from the series in the comments!